Unit: Being On Mission

Session Title: People Prayed for Peter

Life Point: God wants people to pray for one another.

Unit Verse: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Weekly Bible Verse: “Pray for one another.” James 5:16b

Bible Passage: Acts 12:5-19

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click Here

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Craft: Pray for Others Bucket
Decorate a bucket with words, stickers, and pictures that have to do with prayer. On craft sticks (the bigger ones would probably work better) have students write the names of people they can pray for. They can then take the bucket home and pull different sticks on the different days to help them pray for people. Also give them some blank sticks to they can add to their buckets.
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Five Finger Prayer
The site below does a great job of explaining how to teach the five finger prayer to children. This kind of prayer will help them to know who and what to pray about in their prayers.
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Game: Prayer Balloons
Come up with a list of names to write on a card. These names could be people you know of that need prayer, or groups of needy people throughout the world. Place the names separately on small cards or pieces of paper that can be rolled up and placed within the balloon before blowing up the balloons. Have the kids toss the balloon into the air and have them try to keep the balloon up in the air for at least 30 seconds. When this is complete, ring a bell or call time. The child who catches the balloon pops it and the name on the paper is read out loud. The class then says a simple one or two sentence prayer for the name on the list.
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Game: Musical Chair Prayers
Write out cards that have the names of people and tribes that might not get to hear about Jesus. Tape three of these to each chair in various places. Start the music and have the kids walk around the chairs. When the music stops have them kneel in front of a chair and find one of the hidden cards. Have them pray for a minute for the name on the card. Pick up the cards and re-peat the activity until the cards are all gone. Then show the children how many different groups they have prayed for.
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Unit: Telling Others About Jesus

Session Title: The Antioch Church Helped

Life Point: God uses the church to accomplish His purposes in the world today.

Unit Verse: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31

Weekly Bible Verse: “We must not get tired of doing good.” Galatians 6:9

Bible Passage: Acts 11:19-30

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Way to Introduce the Story
Explain and discuss “encouragement”– to do or say something that gives someone courage or confidence. Older children might look this up in the dictionary. Give each child a piece of paper and pencil. Explain that you will give them three minutes to list as many encouraging words or phrases as they can. Encourage them while they are writing! That will give them answers too.

At the end of three minutes see how many all the children came up with. Younger children can just call out phrases and you can write them on the board. If you give a prize to the one who has the most phrases be sure to encourage them and also give a prize and encourage the other students! “There is someone in the book of Acts who was so good at encouraging people that his name actually meant ‘son of encouragement.’ The church in Jerusalem asked him to go to a new church in the city of Antioch and encourage them there. Let’s listen to the story…”
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Activity: What’s the Difference?
Bring pictures of flowers from books or magazines or allow your class to cut some out of magazines. Tell your class that you want to show them something very special that God makes for all of us to enjoy. Briefly show them the pictures. Then bring out real flowers and pass them around the room. Ask the children to tell you the difference between the pictures of flowers and the real ones.

Explain to your class that the world has a lot of opinions about what a Christian is, but unless they have actually seen a Christian that is surrendered to Jesus and filled with His Holy Spirit, they have only seen pictures; they have not seen the real thing. In order to make a difference in the world, we need to let Jesus make a difference in us.
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Craft: Offering Satchel
All the instructions and pieces for this craft are on the pdf attached below. You will need to scroll down a little bit to get to the activity. The materials to be printed for it are at the end of the PDF.
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Activity: Growth Circles
Supplies: basket type coffee filters, washable markers, spray bottle filled with water

Do: – Read Acts 11:19-21
– Tell the children because the disciples shared their faith with others, the church grew
– Read Acts 11:22-23
– Tell the children God sent Barnabas to help the growing church. He organized the church and continued to preach, and the church continued to grow.
– Give each child a coffee filter. Have the children press the filter down like a circle.
– Allow the children to choose their favorite color of washable marker.
– Have the children draw a symbol of our faith on this circle. Ideas of symbols are fish, butterfly, lamb, shell, or dove.
– Spray the filters with water. The colors will run/bleed as they grow.
– Tell the children just like these colors spread out, the love of God spread as the Christians shared their faith with one another. In fact, they shared more than words; they shared food and other gifts, as they brought offerings for others in need.
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Game: Clothespin Relay
Hang 2 clotheslines in your room. Have clothespins ready on the line. Make 2 sets of cards for each of the words in the life verse (older kids) or weekly bible verse (younger kids). Mix up the cards.

Divide children into two groups. Give each group a set of cards and assign them to a clothes-line. Have children race to see which group and pin the verse in the right order first.
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Unit: Telling Others About Jesus

Session Title: Peter and Cornelius

Life Point: God wants people to be involved in his work around the world.

Unit Verse: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31

Weekly Bible Verse: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations… And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20

Bible Passage: Acts 10

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): http://blog.lifeway.com/biblestudiesforlife/leaderextras/by-age-group/

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Activity: Animal Sort
You can use this activity after you tell the story. Have two signs, one that says yes and one that says no. Have a variety of stuffed animals or plastic animals and have the students classify the animals based on the story.
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Way to Introduce Story
Before class prepare small pieces of paper–one for each child. Write the letter “J” on a few of the cards and the letter “G” on the rest. Tape the pieces of paper underneath each chair in your classroom. When you are ready to begin class tell the children that you have something wonderful to tell them. It is the best news in the whole world. Ask them to look underneath their chairs. “All of you who have the letter “J” may come up and here the good news.” Whisper “Jesus loves you” in the ears of those who have the letter “J.”

How does it feel when you only get to hear the good news if you have the letter “J?” In the days when our bible story took place the Jewish people thought that only Jews should hear the good news about Jesus. That means that they would have to be born into a Jewish family. If you weren’t born into a Jewish family then you were a gentile. The only way you could hear about Jesus was to first study and learn about God and then promise to follow the Jewish religion. Let’s see what God had to say about that.
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Memory Verse Game: Love Run
Before class time, the teacher will hide paper hearts around the room with LOVE quotes them. The quotes should be sayings such as, JESUS LOVES ME, LOVE ONE ANOTHER, JESUS LOVES THE LITTLE CHILDREN, LOVE AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. To begin the game, the teacher will say some-thing like “All children wearing something RED, run and find a heart and bring it back to your circle” or “Children who have shoe strings, run and find a heart.” The game continues until all the hearts have been found. Let children tape their hearts to a large poster and begin discussing today’s lesson and what each heart says and how it applies to each child with examples from the children!
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Craft: Heart Bookmark
Let each child draw and cut out a medium size heart out of construction paper. Write today’s Bible verse or words from today’s lesson and decorate with stickers and a ribbon at the top. Stick in their Bibles after finding today’s Bible verse in their own Bibles.
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Activity: Love Others or Love Self
Respond either by saying, “Loving others” or “Loving self.” The teacher’s answer key is in parentheses.
(LO) 1. Meagan carries her brother’s backpack because he is too tired.
(LO) 2. Jerry cooks dinner for his parents while they are working.
(LS) 3. Clarence takes his brother’s toy without asking because he wants it.
(LS) 4. Monique decides she wants to go watch a movie instead of help with the church fundraiser.
(LS) 5. Robby shoves into line at the potluck because he is hungry.
(LO) 6. Jonathan gives up his seat on the bus to an elderly woman.
(LO) 7. Sarah helps her neighborhood friend with her homework every week.
(LO) 8. Jeremy helps an old man load groceries into his vehicle.
(LS) 9. Mason sees someone waiting for a parking space, but he hurries up and takes it before the other person can.
(LS) 10. Erica wants to watch her favorite TV show, so she ignores her mother’s instructions.
(LO) 11. You spend time volunteering at an orphanage every weekend.
(LO) 12. You see someone who doesn’t appear to have much money, so you pay for his lunch.
(LS) 13. Devon sees that someone left their wallet at the pool. He takes it, hoping there is some money in it so that he can buy a video game.
(LS) 14. Bonita sits down next to a person on the bus who is crying but just turns her music up louder, planning to drown out the sound.
(LO) 15. Levi just got an ice cream cone when he sees a smaller child is crying because he dropped his. Levi offers the boy his ice cream.
(LS) 16. Martin sees someone walking behind him, but when he goes through the door he doesn’t bother to hold it open for them. He figures they can open it themselves.
(LS) 17. Loretta is driving home from work and sees someone who is having car trouble. Instead of stopping to help, she just continues home because she wants to have time to soak in the tub.
(LO) 18. Although Reagan is still hungry, she gives the rest of her food to her baby sister who did not get enough to eat and is crying.
(LO) 19. Josh wants to play a different video game than his brother, but he lets his brother choose.
(LO) 20. Even though this little kid in the neighborhood really irritates you, you still agree to play with him for a while.
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Unit: Telling Others About Jesus

Session Title: Philip and the Ethiopian

Life Point: God wants me to tell others in my community about Jesus.

Unit Verse: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31

Weekly Bible Verse: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Acts 16:31

Bible Passage: Acts 8:26-40

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Craft: Speak the Truth Megaphone (1st and 2nd)
Make a paper megaphone that helps kids to remember to always speak the truth. There is a die-cut for a megaphone in the preschool resource room. You can have the students decorate the megaphone with stickers or rhinestones. You could also have them draw places where it might be hard for them to talk about Jesus. They should also write their memory verse and/or “Speak the Truth” on the megaphone.

Game: Telephone
A classic game that is about telling people. This would be a great game to help drive the point about telling people about Jesus and making sure your message is clear so it does not get messed up as people tell one another.

Craft: Jesus Loves You Doorknob Hanger
Children can share the messages of Jesus love with others by making them doorknob hangers. Cut a piece of card stock to be 2 feet long and 6 inches wide. Cut a hole out of the top big enough to fit over a doorknob. Color the words “Jesus Loves Me” on a piece of colored construction paper. Cut it out and staple, or glue it just under the hole for the doorknob. Next, cut four hearts out of construction paper and write one letter on each heart so that you spell out “LOVE.” Staple or glue the hearts single file from top to bottom on the doorknob hanger. Share the verse John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” with the person you give the doorknob hanger to. We also have a door knob hanger die cut in the Preschool Resource Room.

Craft: Great Commission Craft
Even though the great commission is not a part of this lesson it works with what the lesson is about. This is a great craft to remind the kids they can tell people about Jesus anywhere, from their home to the world.
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Craft: Chariot
The instructions as well as the template for this craft is on the website below. This would be a good craft for 2nd-4th grade.
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Snack: Scroll
Use fruit by the foot and pretzel sticks to make a scroll that the kids can actually eat! Use the snack to talk about the scroll in the story.
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Unit: Learning About the Church

Session Title: Stephen Preached

Life Point: God’s plan is for Christians to tell how to trust Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Unit Verse: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1

Weekly Bible Verse: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

Bible Passages: Acts 6:8-7

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Craft: Speak the Truth Megaphone (1st-2nd grades)
Make a paper megaphone that helps kids to remember to always speak the truth. There is a die-cut for a megaphone in the Preschool Resource Room. You can have the students decorate the megaphone with stickers or rhinestones. You could also have them draw places where it might be hard for them to talk about Jesus. They should also write their memory verse and/or “Speak the Truth” on the megaphone.

Craft: Can Do Can (3rd-5th grades)
Children can make a can that has the verse for the week, Philippians 4:13, on it. They can decorate the can so that each one is unique. In the picture below the children make a can looks like a person, that is not necessary but also is a good idea. Then they write places where it is hard to talk about Jesus or people they might have a hard time talking about Jesus to and then put them in the can. Then they can remember to pray for these places and people every day.
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Craft: Telling Others about God License Plates
Click on the below link for the full lesson, it does a great job of explaining how to do this activity. It is a great way to show children how we can tell others about God everywhere we go just like personalized license plates tell us about people who are driving the cars.
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Game: Strength Test (3rd-5th grades)
Have the kids do little activities like run from one end of the room to the other 3 times, have them do 5 push ups, carrying a book to one end of the room to the other, how far they can throw a stuffed animal etc. to show how strong they are. Then talk about and relate how God gives us physical strength and strength to talk to people about God.
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Game: Telephone
A classic game that is about telling people. This would be a great game to help drive the point about telling people but also making sure your message is clear so it does not get messed up between people.

Craft: Jesus Loves You Doorknob Hanger
Children can share the messages of Jesus love with others by making them doorknob hangers. Cut a piece of card stock to be 2 feet long and 6 inches wide. Cut a hole out of the top big enough to fit over a doorknob. Color the words “Jesus Loves Me” on a piece of colored construction paper. Cut it out and staple, or glue it just under the hole for the doorknob. Next, cut four hearts out of construction paper and write one letter on each heart so that you spell out “LOVE.” Staple or glue the hearts single file from top to bottom on the doorknob hanger. Share the verse John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” with the person you give the doorknob hanger to. We also have a door knob hanger die cut in the Preschool Resource Room.
Click here for more info

Craft: Great Commission Craft
Even though the great commission is not a part of this lesson it works with what the lesson is about. This is a great craft to remind the kids they can tell people about Jesus anywhere, from their home to the world.
Click here for more info

Unit: Learning About Church

Session Title: The Church Chose Leaders

Life Point: Church leaders teach people about God and Jesus.

Unit Verse: “I rejoiced with those who said to me ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1

Weekly Bible Verse: “Serve one another through love.” Galatians 5:13

Bible Passage: Acts 6:1-7

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Craft: The Church Works Together
The website shows how to do this craft and it is simple. You can use the die-cut machine downstairs in Preschool to cut out people, you can print them from the below link for the kids to cut out or have the kids make their own.
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Book Activity: Thank You Cards
In the 1st and 2nd grade lesson it has them making thank you cards for people who serve in the church. If you need a list of names you can let us know or they are on the website. We will be sure to deliver to the right people. I’m sure that the parking lot missionaries would appreciate cards from the kids!

Activity: Work Together Puzzle
An activity for the memory verse to help teach the importance of each person’s service in the church: Give each student a puzzle piece. Recite the verse together and have each student come and place their puzzle piece to assemble the picture. As each piece is placed talk about how we are better able to see what the picture is. It is the same as when each of us serve other believers. God’s plans and power are more visible to those who do not believe in Jesus as we serve and help each other in the Body of Christ.
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Unit: Learning About Church

Session Title: Peter and John Preached

Life Point: Christians should tell others about Jesus

Unit Verse: “I rejoiced with those who said to me ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1

Weekly Bible Verse: “We are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:20

Bible Passage: Acts 3:1-4:21

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Craft: Time to Tell Clock
This craft is simple; the toughest part will be finding CDs to use whether it be blank ones or used ones. You could write the verse on them, or a simplified part of the verse. You could also add a ribbon to be able to hang the clock.
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Game: Telephone
A classic game that is about telling people a specific sentence or phrase. This would be a great game to help drive the point that your message needs to be clear so it does not get messed up as people retell it.

Mother’s Day: Love You Because Flowers
This is a cute craft for kids to do for their mom. The site says to use foam flowers but you could do this craft with construction paper as well and it may be easier because you can use regular markers.
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Mother’s Day: I Love You with a Cherry on Top
Cute craft that has the kids think of adjectives to describe their moms. This could be made into a card but the example on the site is more like a poster.
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Mother’s Day: Card for Mom
Here is a site to a lot of Mother’s Day card ideas, which are very cute and easy to do as well.
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Mother’s Day: Fingerprint Flower Pots
The instructions are on the site below. This would be an easy craft to do with any age. We do not have any flowerpots in the Resource Room so you will need to buy them if you decide to do this craft.
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Unit: Learning About Church

Session Title: The Church Began

Life Point: People learn about God and Jesus at church.

Unit Verse: “I rejoiced with those who said to me ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1

Weekly Bible Verse: “I rejoiced with those who said to me ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Psalm 122:1

Bible Passage: Acts 2

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Video: What is Church?
You will need to use data on your cell phone if you are going to show this because the WIFI is not the best in the Children’s Area.
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Craft: I Am the Church
Make mirrors from paper plates. Around the edge of the paper plate write “(Child’s name) the church.” Glue a piece of aluminum foil in the center of the paper plate. Add a craft stick for a handle.
Say: When you look in your mirror, who do you see? Yes, you see the church.
As children look into their mirrors, encourage them to sing “You Are the Church,” only this time change the words to “I am the church.”
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Activity: Blown Away
Hand each child a balloon and instruct them to blow it up as much as possible. Then release the balloons and see how far they fly! Do they follow straight patterns? Do this a couple of times, and then tie off balloons or give them to students to keep (try to give each child a different col-or to ease confusion).

Next (or in place of balloon activity if you wish), play a special version of “air hockey:” give everyone a straw and a pom-pom. On direction, have children use the straws to blow the pom-poms from one designated point to another, seeing who can blow the fastest and most accurately.

Gather kids together and ask them how they managed to blow up the balloons and move the pom-poms. Could they see the air that blew through? No…so how do we know it was there? (it moved things and enabled “life,” just like the Holy Spirit!). Invite students to share what they know about the Holy Spirit.
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Unit: Jesus is Alive!

Session Title: The Ascension

Life Point: Jesus promised that God would send the Holy Spirit.

Unit Verse: “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37

Weekly Bible Verse: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.” John 14:26

Bible Passage: Acts 1:4-11

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Craft: Jesus Ascension Window Craft
The website has all the instructions for this craft. It is more suited for 1st-3rd grade.
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Craft: Jesus Ascension Windsock
A fun and easy craft that kids will love to make. We have streamers in the resource room or you could use something different on the bottom.
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Ascension-Windsock-PDF

Game: Back and Forth Ascension Game
This is a fun game but needs to be done with children in 2nd grade and up. This game may be a little messy but if contained it will be fun for the kids!
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Science Experiment: Ascension
A fun experiment to do with kids about the Ascension and what it means. Any age kids can do this activity.
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Unit: Jesus Is Alive!

Session Title: Thomas Believed

Life Point: People can know Jesus is alive today!

Unit Verse: “Nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37

Weekly Bible Verse: “Nothing will be impossible with God” Luke 1:37

Bible Passage: John 20:19-31

Extras from LifeWay (GREAT Ideas Here): Click here

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Activity: Trust Falls
This activity can be done at all ages, but is geared more for older kids (4th-5th graders). It illustrates the idea of being able to trust someone else.
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Craft: Doubting Thomas/Bible Passage Craft
A fun craft that helps children understand better this week’s story better. It would make a good wrap up craft.
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Activity: Seeing and Believing
This would be better for younger kids. It might be good to have a blanket or something to put in front of the chosen child to make it better.
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Activity: Object Lesson
Put a small object in a paper bag. Ask one child to look in the paper bag and tell the class what he sees. Ask the class, “Do you believe him?” and let children respond. Secretly put a new item in the bag and ask five children to look inside and tell the class what they see. Ask, “Is it easier to believe five people rather than one when their answers are the same?” Most children will respond yes. Tell them that even though all 10 disciples told Thomas that Jesus arose, he still didn’t believe.
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